


Delphos Island

by Casstea



Series: It's a Long Story [3]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - HP, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-26
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-27 01:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Casstea/pseuds/Casstea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One Agent. One Wizard. It was supposed to be an undercover operation, a simple scouting mission. Then things escalated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You know that Bond/Wizard!Q fic I promised? Here is Part 1! Loosely carries on from ‘It’s a Long Story’, but the basic premise is that Q is actually a wizard who transferred from the Auror office to MI6. Hope you all enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: Written for fun and not for profit. I don't own James Bond/HP/or the references to Moriary and Moran who I snagged from Sherlock Holmes.

“This mission is of the utmost importance Bond,” M said, turning away from the vista view above her desk and looking at the agent, “have I made that clear?”

“Perfectly, Ma’am,” James replied.

“The death of Moriarty last year has created a series of events that no one was considering,” M said, nodding towards the picture of the dead man on top of St Barts Hospital, blood pooled around his head, “for everyone.”

By everyone, James guessed the magical ‘community’, and at least that explained why Q was also in this meeting with him, being a wizard apparently qualified one’s membership of the secret community.

Luckily for James, Q had explained the magical system of governance to him, although he still didn’t understand half of the words that came out of the younger man’s mouth most of the time. Apparently he was a ‘muggle’, a label which James did not like. Q teased him mercilessly because he suggested that James didn’t want to ruin his ‘reputation as a hard core agent’.

“With the alien attack on New York earlier this year,” M said, sitting down on her chair, “the confusion has only worsened.”

“Leading to this group,” James continued, “to take advantage?”

“But we don’t know how,” M said, tapping the grainy picture next to the one of the dead Moriarty, “we know these people were in league with Moriarty when he died, but the fact they have branched out from the main network suggests they’re doing something different. I want you two to find out what they’re doing.”

“Two?” James asked.

“You think I’m going to let you walk into an environment when you could get zapped onto your arse by some magic wielding terrorists?” M said, “Guns are only so good against those who also are working in the same plane of reality as you Bond.”

“I preferred it when the bad guys could only shoot bullets,” James sighed, looking over at Q, “no offence.”

Q smiled back at the agent.

“None taken.”

“What’s our cover?” James asked. He trusted M to know what she was doing, after all he didn’t know Q’s full backstory, only that he had been recruited out of the division of the Magical Ministry that dealt with catching ‘Dark Wizards’. James had an amusing image of some sort of wizard police dressed in pointy hats and long capes blowing whistles at those who broke the law, but he was sure that wasn’t entirely correct.

“It shouldn’t be too hard for either of you,” M said, glancing at the pair, and passing another file to the pair of them. James opened it and scanned the information.

Apparently, he and Q were going to pose as partners visiting the lush private island of Delphos for a relaxing weekend away. Not, as their mission was, to find out what the illegal organisation were doing on the lush private island of Delphos.

James snapped the folder shut.

“This shouldn’t be too hard at all,” he said, casting a sly glance to his Quartermaster who merely raised a suggestive eyebrow in return.

x-x-x

The first time they saw Delphos Island, it was from the upper deck of the ferry.

Sea air whipped around James; the salty smell infusing him with the wild call of the water below. White waves churned around the hull of the boat, like foam being spat from the mouth of an angry dog. The deck of the ship undulated underneath them, in time with the steady rhythm of the waves beneath. James quite enjoyed the quiet, emptiness of the ocean around them, it reminded him of the same solitude and silence he had found at Skyfall as a child.

Q, on the other hand, was holding onto the rail of the ship with a grim determination. The Quartermaster had taken a potion earlier (James still couldn’t get used to the fact Q had  _drunk_  the frankly disgusting looking liquid, but according to Q it worked ‘a hell of a lot better than sea sickness tablets’), but that still didn’t remove his inherent unease of being on a boat.

Delphos Island rose out of the horizon, covered in the early morning sea mist that had clung around its shores over the course of the evening. James and Q had taken the last ferry across, meaning that they would arrive at the Island in the early morning. Q had commented about how disappointing it was to find the Island was situated in a remote part of the North Sea as opposed to the sunny islands of Greece where its name suggested it would be. James had insisted that it was disappointing he wouldn’t have an excuse for Q to walk around without a shirt.

After that comment, not much in the way of planning for the mission had got done. Although, the pair of them had broken the small lampshade in their cabin.

James still blamed Q for that one.

“Has our friend done anything suspicious?” Q asked, as the boat pitched forward again, forcing him to grab the handrail tightly.

“As a wizard,” James commented, “I thought you would have had a better constitution for sea travel.”

“My ability to do magic,” Q replied slowly, his mouth wrapping around the words uncertainly as he grasped the rail tighter, “has no bearing on if I become affected by motion sickness.”

“As you insist,” James replied, glancing over his shoulder at their quarry they had come out onto the open deck in the first place to pursue. A woman stood on deck, a cigarette hanging defiantly in her fingers, the glowing tip flickering in the sea breeze. James was amazed that the cigarette hadn’t gone out, but then he supposed he was dealing with witches and wizards and magic.

Maybe they had invented some sort of spell to keep cigarettes alight. Whatever it was, James wanted to know it.

 The woman wore a hat pulled down tightly over her hair, with a scarf wrapped around it and tied under her chin to prevent it blowing away. She was wearing an elegant coat that almost reached her heeled feet, and from James’ knowledge of female attire, the coat would probably cost more than his salary packet for the month.

And that was saying something.

“You’re supposed to be analysing a target, not eyeing her up,” Q commented dryly.

“Jealous much,”

“I protect my property,”

“Jealously then,” James confirmed.

x-x-x

They managed to get to the atrium of the hotel just as they were opening up. Luckily, James considered, their bags were not heavy due to Q having cast a special charm (James like to call it the TARDIS charm) that made their bags larger on the inside than the out.

“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have just teleported us here,” James whispered to Q, as the doors to the quiet hotel swung shut behind them.

“Apparition would have been detected,” Q replied, “an undetectable bag extension charm wouldn’t have been.”

The hotel seemed to be designed in accordance with the large old English Country homes that reminded James of boring school trips out. Opulent curtains covered the large window panes, with dim lighting supplied on the high ceiling by burnished copper lampshades that hung from thick iron chains. There were heavy armchairs littered about the room, high backed that looked like they should belong in an old Edwardian movie than a modern day hotel. A thick musk of age hung about the air around them, making James’ nose wrinkle in distaste.

Q made his way up to the reception desk while Bond was analysing the entrances and exits in a pretence of admiring the décor. The woman they had seen on the ferry had departed up a separate track to the way the taxi had taken James and Q from the port up to the hotel. Much to James’ amusement, she had been driving an Audi, whose black sides had been mired by mud from the drive down to the ferry terminal. An attempt at demonstrating how much wealth she had, James supposed, but at least he had told him that the base of operations Q and he were looking for lay down an unused dirt track.

“Finished admiring the place?” Q remarked, slotting his arm neatly into James, “we’re in the castle suite.”

“At the top of the building I suppose?” James asked, hefting his small suitcase in his hand. Whilst Q had managed to cast a charm to take most of the weight, he had insisted that some of it had to be left to make them seem like ‘realistic muggles’.

“And no lift,” Q smirked, picking up his own case as the pair of them walked towards the small staircase off the side of the main reception area.

“Fantastic,” James grumbled under his breath.

“Don’t worry,” Q remarked in reply, “it’ll give you a chance to flex your muscles.”

James glared at the back of the Quartermaster has he followed the other up the tight staircase. Q would pay for that remark later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Written for fun and not for profit. I don't own James Bond/HP/or the references to Moriary and Moran who I snagged from Sherlock Holmes.

“Will it work?”

Q gave James a sidelong glance as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

“They expect a magical attack if any,” Q explained, punching the enter key with a note of finality, “not something based from the magical world and  _certainly_  not technological.”

James huffed, as he shrugged on his jacket, tucking the earpiece into his ear. Q had set up the computers already, hacking into the CCTV feeds of the hotel to provide himself with a bird’s eye view of the surroundings. According to their information, there was going to be a meeting between the woman they saw on the ferry and her contact on the island in the bar of the hotel. The plan was for James to go and overhear the conversation to try and find out just  _what_  they were planning.

“Right,” Q said, “you’re all set up.”

“Can’t you give me some sort of magical protection against these guys?” James asked.

Q raised an eyebrow.

“You know what I mean,” the agent said.

“They have charms all over this place,” Q waved his hand absent mindedly as he pushed his glasses back up to the bridge of his nose, “we do not want to give away our trump card.”

“I hardly think you’re the trump card,”

“I am glad you respect my abilities as well,” Q replied, glancing at one of the many computer screens flashing CCTV pictures in front of him, “now please go before you miss them. You have ten minutes before they enter the hotel, they’ve just passed the exterior camera.”

Pulling his shirt cuffs out of the end of his jacket, James gave Q a respectful nod before slipping out of the door and into the hotel hallway, shutting it behind him quietly.

 _“Hurry up, 007,”_ the voice in his ear chided, “speed is of the essence.”

James looked up to one of the security cameras and glared, slipping down the main stairways, keeping his steps light. He looked relaxed to the outside world, but he was carefully detailing each and every thing in the environment around him. The couple at the desk, drenched head to toe because of the torrential rain which continued to hammer down outside, the man sitting in one of the high backed arm chairs, face buried in one of the national broadsheet newspapers, or the five exit doors which could give him a clean exit if he needed to get way in a hurry.

Slipping into the bar, James let his years of experience direct his movements as he walked towards the bar, elbow placed lightly on the counter.

“Martini, shaken not stirred,” he ordered, eyes flicking around the room, analysing every square inch of the premises.

“ _Man in the lobby with the newspaper has just got up,”_ Q whispered in his ear.

“Got him,” James said in reply, just as the barman returned with his drink. He took the delicate glass, balancing it lightly between his fingers as he took a sip of the alcohol, eyes watching as the man from the lobby walked into the bar, newspaper tucked under his arm. The man approached the bar, standing a little way down from James, as he ordered his drink.

“Here for long?” James asked. The other man turned, revealing his sweat ridden brow and puffy red cheeks. If the lighting was better in the room, James would probably be able to see the man’s pupils dilated from the alcohol he had already consumed. Obviously the other man was nervous about meeting the woman who was just driving up to the hotel.

“Just the weekend away,” the man replied, his voice tight and strained. His mind was on other things, conversing in small talk was the last thing on his mind.

“I hope the weather improves,” James replied, nodding his head to the raindrops which was slinking their way down the tall glass windows on the other side of the bar. The glass rattled as the rain lashed into it with every gust of wind.

“Indeed,” the man replied, shuffling the newspaper underneath his arm as the bartender returned with his ordered drink, a shot of whiskey, which the man downed in one swig.

“ _Woman has just arrived,”_ Q said, “ _although something is-”_

Q stopped mid-sentence, just as James turned to look at the woman who swept into the bar, long coat enclosing her tall frame, a wide hat shading her face from James’ view.

“ _Get out of there James,”_ Q whispered, “ _I know who she is,”_

“You didn’t recognise her the other day? On the ferry?” James replied, calmly taking another sip of his drink, watching as the woman slipped off her leather gloves calmly and sauntered over towards the man.

“Do you have it?” she asked, her voice low and laced with authority.

“ _Different woman,_ ” Q said, “ _they knew we were coming_.”

“Don’t they always,” James muttered, as the man handed over the newspaper to the woman who raised her chin slightly to show James her mouth under the rim of her wide hat.

 _“Get out of there James,”_ Q said, as the woman glanced up from the man towards James, revealing her deep emerald eyes which shone with mischief and intelligence.

Then, she swept out of the bar again, pulling on her leather gloves as she did so, leaving the trembling man at the bar, nursing his empty shot glass.

“ _Get out of there,”_  Q whispered urgently.

“It’s in the paper,” James replied, twisting suddenly, putting down his drink and picking up another abandoned newspaper that lay on the edge of the bar. From his judgement, the trembling man must have been reading the centre fold pages, so his fingers found the pages he was looking for. Eyes flicking over the lines, picking out certain words, James noticed the odd arrangement of pictures in the bottom left hand corner, placed in the centre of an advert for-

 _“Get out of there 007,”_ Q said, “ _we need to leave now. We need back up.”_

James snorted, folding the paper back up again, as he picked up his drink and downed it in one.

“Don’t you trust me,” he remarked back, hand diving inside his jacket for the gun which was holstered there, as he strode out of the bar and towards the exit which the woman had just gone out of, catching the closing door with his foot as he walked out into the rain drawing his gun as he did so.

 _“Bond that woman is dangerous-“_  Q said.

The tracks were not hard to follow, the rain hammering down around him, as he dashed into the thick wood which framed either side of the road, the rain seeping into his trousers and becoming more waterlogged as he brushed past the bracken.

Then, he was on the floor, unable to move. His gun was out of his reach, and even though he tried to move, he felt like his body had been wrapped up with an invisible rope, tying his limbs to the side of his body.

“Now that isn’t very nice,” the woman’s voice said as she kneeled next to James. The rain scattered off an invisible shield above her head, dripping directly onto James’ back. He fought furiously against his bonds, but the only part of himself he could move was his eyes, which glared fury and frustration at the delicate features of the woman.

In his ear, Q was swearing furiously, as sounds of equipment being knocked aside echoed through the connection.

“Trapping you, Mr Bond,” the woman whispered, leaning in close to James’ ear, “was easy.”

Then she curved her long nails around the earpiece, pulling out from James’ ear and taking with it the comforting voice of Q.

“You’re out of your depth,” the woman said, grasping James’ shoulder tightly, nails digging into his skin. In the other hand she held a long stick, shorter than Q’s and made from a darker wood. However, James was under no doubt that this woman belonged to the same world that Q had done.

Arse.

Suddenly, the world around his twisted and turned, and James felt the odd feeling as if he was being forced through a very small pipe. Patterns swirled in a kaleidoscope of colours, forcing him into a smaller and smaller space.

Then he was on a stone floor, still unable to move.

The woman got up, releasing her talon like grip on his shoulder, before backing away from the still frozen agent whose eyes followed her every movement. In his peripheral vision, James could see the hazy lines of an iron bar, as the sounds of scraping metal echoed through the room as the door was shut.

“I’ll grant you this,” the woman said, muttering some more butchered pig latin. James felt the invisible rope slip away, as he leapt up from the floor and towards the bars, a feral snarl escaping his throat.

“Now, now,” the woman chided, as she slipped the newspaper she had been given in the bar out of her long coat sleeve, “that’s not very nice.”

“Who the hell are you,” James growled.

“Seva is the name you will use for me,” the woman, Seva, replied, as she took of her black hat to reveal a short brown bob of hair. It looked like an expensive cut, to go along with the expensive clothes she wore.

The door behind Seva opened, and a bedraggled, meek looking man entred.

“Ms Moran?” the man questioned, “we have a problem,”

“Not for long we won’t,” Seva replied, smiling towards James, “Jim was right about you Mr Bond, you are like a dog chasing his tail. A big, snarling dog perhaps, but still a dog.”

James twisted his hands around the bars of his cell, as Seva slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her, the sound of a key being turned in the lock echoing through his stone cell.

“Great,” James said, rattling the doors of his cell as if it were to alleviate the frustration of his situation. He was an agent, a well-trained agent yes, but he couldn’t go up against myth and magic and monsters.

He glanced up to the small window which was next to the door. There was no glass pane, leaving the cold wet wind to gust into the room and make James shiver in reaction. From the depth of it, it would seem the entire, circular room had a wall at least a foot thick, built like the arrow slit on the towers of a castle.

“Fantastic,” James sighed, as he slipped down to the stone floor and leaning his head against the iron bars. In a normal situation, he would be able to get out, but now he was erring on the side of caution.

After all, he didn’t know if he tried to get out he would be turned into a newt or something.

“Get your skinny arse up here Q,” James muttered into the silence around him as he ran a hand through his wet hair, “now.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own James Bond or the references made to Moran and Moriarty - both belong to their respective owners. I'm writing for fun and not for profit.

“Bond’s been taken,” Q said to base, flicking his wand at the equipment, letting the magic pack it for him. It took only a few seconds, whilst Q paced backwards and forwards  across the room.

“Do not attempt anything,” M’s voice came from the other end of the line, “that’s an order, Q,”

“You don’t know what he’s up against,” Q replied, checking the door was securely locked. He had placed the _‘Do Not Disturb’_ sign outside earlier, to ensure that no cleaning staff would stumble in upon an empty room, even though only one of the occupants had been seen leaving.

“Q,” M repeated in his ear.

“He doesn’t know what he’s up again,” Q picked up his wand from the table and shoving it in his pocket, and grabbed his jacket from where it had been thrown over the table. He would need the warmth later.

“You are no longer in your original job capacity,” M reminded him. Q shook his head irritably, clawing the earpiece from his ear as he threw it on the bed. Taking the now packed cases from on top of the bed, Q pulled the wardrobe door open with his foot, before putting the cases of equipment into the bottom of the cupboard. He shut the door with a slam, pulling his wand out of his pocket and placing numerous wards on the wardrobe.

“Sorry, M,” Q said to the earpiece as he shoved it in his pocket, before walking over to the window. It was one of the older style windows which would be lifted up, providing a wide gap large enough to climb out of.

Although, Q wasn’t exactly planning on climbing out of the window.

He had recognised the woman immediately, but the walk had given it away. Her name had been Seva Moran, a woman who had left Hogwarts a year before Q had joined, although her legacy had remained behind. A Slytherin with a perchance for power, she had managed to create a significant power base with members from all four of the houses. It was only after he had joined the Auror department had Q found out that she had joined in league with Jim Moriarty, in an effort to increase her own power.

And now the very Seva Moran had kidnapped Bond.

Q sat in the window frame, looking out onto the ground below. It was only two stories up, and the trees grew up further than this height.

 _Perfect cover,_ Q thought, as he threw himself out of the window.

And turned into a Raven.

Q flapped his wings wildly for a moment, until he tapped into the natural instinct. Being an animagus had been a natural choice for his work as an Auror, as it was a common enough bird in Britain for no-one to notice his presence. He glided through the air, sharp eyes picking out everything that was below him. He followed the road that spit off from the main drive leading up to the hotel, gliding low beneath the tree’s branches. It was not long before he came across the tale tail signs of a fortified position, he could feel the wards gliding across his feathers as he went through them. Soon he came across the barbed wire, wheeling off into the trees as he came across the guards standing outside the gate. No doubt they had been instructed to look out for anything suspicious, and they probably wouldn’t discount a raven far from its home territory wheeling across the sky.

It didn’t take long to find James’ tower, tucked away in the centre of the maze of buildings. He flew with instinct, analysing the ground for routes out of the building which would no doubt be useful.

After all, he was going to have to walk out of here with James, his animagus form wasn’t large enough to try and _carry_ the stubborn agent back to safety.

Circling the tower a few times, Q picked out the window he would use as his entry point. There were no wards against animals around the tower, otherwise Q would have felt them ruffle his feathers as he had flown in. No, Seva Moran had been cunning, as cunning as she had been rumoured to be.

If Q had teeth, he would have grated them nervously as he swooped down for another pass, trying to find the possible paths out of the building. All he could do, however, was snap his beak irritably as he swung up into the sky after spotting one of the guards coming out of the building. The place, for all of its defences had very few muggle guards, which was either a statement of stupidity on Moran’s part or it meant there were more magical defences hidden away in the building where Q couldn’t sense them in his animagus form.

 _The latter, probably,_ Q thought, as he arced high into the sky. Gauging his distance with a practiced eye, he swooped down towards the small stone window in the tower where James was held, which looked like it had once been used as an archery firing point. Tucking his wings in at the last minute, he barrelled through the window and transformed as soon as he was on the other side, tucking himself into a forward roll and drawing his wand in one swift movement.

“How long did it take you to practise _that?”_ James asked.

Q blinked a few times to let his eyes re-adjust now he was back in a human form. He was lucky that he hadn’t crashed straight into the bars which made up James’ cell, having stopped a mere foot from them. The room had clearly been made to house prisoners when the castle had been originally made, at the top of the tower like the tale of trapped heroines of legend.

“A while, 007,” Q remarked, standing up and wincing as his muscles protested at the movement. He hadn’t used his animagus form for years, and only once before this moment to prove to James that _yes he could turn into a bird and it had been bloody hard to achieve thank you very much._

“What did you notice on the way in,” James asked, “I couldn’t look because I had been teleported-”

“Apparated,”

“Same difference,” James continued, “by that woman. And how come you didn’t recognise her on the boat across?”

“Different woman,” Q said, “it was known back when I was working for the Ministry that Moran liked to use Doubles in an attempt to outwit her adversaries.”

“Let me guess,” James replied dryly, pushing himself off the floor and walking over towards the bars, “these Doubles were made with some sort of Black Magic?” The agent lent against one of the bars lazily, giving Q a rather splendid view of the other’s collarbone.

Q cleared his throat. James smiled, the bastard knew what he was doing.

“Dark magic,” Q said, peering at the lock to distract himself from 007’s alluring gaze, “not Black magic. And yes, the process I have read is not pleasant, and it explained a spree of kidnappings that occurred two years after Moran left Hogwarts.”

James didn’t reply, and for once Q was glad for the silence. He muttered a complex series of revealing spells that made the lock glow brightly like it had been wrapped in an intricate series of spider’s webs, each one glowing a different hue of yellow.

“This might take a while,” Q said, crouching lower to get a better look at the lock, his wand balanced mere inches from the wards which covered it. If the rumours were true, Moran had been one of the best known Witches at charms, especially those involving restraining individuals in places they didn’t want to be restrained.

Slowing his breathing to allow his mind to focus, Q begun to unravel the complex wards with the counter spells, intuitively altering the wand movements as he watched the spell unravel to ensure that no alarms went off. He felt his heart beating wildly in his chest, after all if he got it wrong both him and James would be blown into smithereens.

And if they died in an explosion, Q had no doubt that Eve would drag them both back from the grave to fill out the paperwork.

When the last spell fell off the lock, Q heaved a sigh of relief, staggering backwards to lean against the cool wall. Sweat covered his forehead, and he had a feeling he was going to need a strong dose of Earl Grey Tea if he was going to fight off the headache he sometimes got after an adrenaline fuelled concentration period.

“Come on,” James said, pulling the bars open with one easy heave and catching Q has he staggered sideways once more, “we need to get out of here.”

“We need to get the data,” Q said, using James like a crutch as he gasped for breath.

“You said forget the data,” James chided.

“Back room,” Q said, “I can hack their severs and open them so Q branch can get into it.”

“Where?”

“I saw a power line come in to the area below this tower,” Q said, his breathing evening out, “if they’re going to have a computer system that allows them to bet on the stock markets and make millions for their criminal exploits, it’ll need to have a lot of power to cool it down. I would bet you the information our informant back in the hotel gave to Moran - inside trader information on the stock markets.”

“Couldn’t the power for a computer be fed elsewhere?” James asked, “off the site?”

“No,” Q smiled, “because Moran is a Witch and even if she has help from a muggle organisation she wouldn’t be able to rig this castle up to take the power elsewhere. The renovation work to do that would take far longer than they need to be here.”

“So the room then?” James said, allowing Q to stand up by himself, “but first I need a gun.”

“Don’t you trust me to protect you?” Q asked with a small smile, twirling his wand in his fingers.

“I still want a gun,” James said, as he tested the door that led out to the spiral staircase which would take them down the tower. The door was unlocked, only a simple latch stopping the door from swinging open.

“She didn’t think anyone would be able to undo her magic,” Q said, smiling at James knowingly. James grunted appreciatively. The arrogant idiot didn’t believe that his Q would be able to protect him from the big bad world.

“I still want a gun,” James said.

“I’ll make you one with silver bullets.”

“When am I going to meet werewolves or vampires Q?”

“Knowing you,” Q said, “You would probably just insult it. Now are we going to get out of here 007?”

James smirked, as he stepped out into the cold stairwell, his feet treading lightly. Q followed him closely, his tread not silenced like James’ practised one but quiet enough to not draw any unwarranted attention to them by making too much noise.

They descended into the bowels of the castle. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Here, after a long while, is chp 4.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own James Bond or HP, this is written for fun and not for profit.

“Well this is going to be fun,” James muttered as he and Q crouched behind the servers. Q was already hacking into the mainframe, fingers tapping over the keyboard confidently as he begun to plunge himself into the layers of code, trying to find a back door into the security program. The warding charm they had broken when James had shouldered the door into the room.

“Can’t you turn that off?” James asked Q, training his gun on the door. The entire castle would know of their presence by now, and he could imagine M striding into Q branch to demand just what the _hell_ was going on. Both Q and James had lost their earpieces, a point Q was still quite sour about because apparently he had spent a lot of time making them.

“Don’t distract me,007,” Q muttered, eyes not leaving the screen. His wand lay on the table beside him, the innocent piece of wood looking far less powerful that it actually was.

 _Magic,_ James thought to himself, _is beyond confusing._ He would be sticking to what he knew obeyed the laws of physics and _sense._

“And I’m in,” Q said, turning to James, “a personal best if you ask me,”

“Personal Best?” James asked.

“Their system is as generic as their guards,” Q said, “Moran doesn’t know what she’s doing when it comes to muggle technology, and especially she doesn’t know who to hire to _install_ the technology.”

“Alright then, genius,” James said over the noise of the wailing walls as he peered over Q’s shoulder at the lines of code with a grimace, “does that say anything interesting?”

“Well,” Q said, leaning towards James so the agent could hear what he was saying as he tapped a few keys on the keyboard. The screen flickered, showing the CCTV feed from around the castle, “I would say there are four interesting things in the form of the guards coming to get us.”

“How long do you need?” James asked.

“Ten minutes,” Q said, “once the link’s live I want to secure it so Q branch can keep accessing it even if we become indisposed.”

“Delightful,” James said, grabbing the gun, an assault rifle he had taken off one of the guards they had met on their way down to the server room, “I can buy you that time, Q, just don’t be too long.”

“Try not to get injured by Moran,” Q said, “guns are no use against magic,”

“I’ll like to see her try anyway,” James replied. The guards still had the final decent down the stairs to make before they got to the three secure doors before the server room. He had about three minutes to get in position.

James darted across the room, the sound of the warning ward making it hard to concentrate. The door to the server room was totally busted, the lock was gone and the wood around the handle was splintered and broken. James slipped around the edge of the door, swinging it closed behind him.

The guards were not ready for James to quickly take them out. The four bodies slumped to the floor unceremoniously, as James rose from his crouch and quickly made it out of the Server complex and into the main part of the castle.

He did everything possible to get noticed. A few shots out of one of the windows across the courtyard took the guards patrolling the castle parapets by surprise. One of them crumped to the floor, James shot having taken his knee out. Alarms begun to sound throughout the castle as James sprinted down the corridor towards the next stairwell, trying to gain height on his opponents. It would be easier to take them out from a proper vantage point.

However, before he could take another step, he was plummeting to the floor, limbs locked to his sides by an invisible force. His head cracked against the stone floor with some force, enough to make his head swim.

“Hello again, James,” James saw Moran crouch down next to him in his peripheral vision, “nice to see you again.”

The world went black.

x-x-x

Q was almost finished hacking the database when he heard the magically amplified screams of James echo through the castle.

 _You had better not do this Moran,_ Q thought darkly, as his fingers sped up, securing the connection for Q branch. James had given him seven minutes, and Q branch could do the rest from London. He wasn’t going to let James be a victim to Moran.

Snatching up his wand, Q shot a spell towards the screen of the computer, disintegrating it instantly. James’ screamed echoed around him, making Q clench his jaw in anger. Moran was making a very stupid move, she failed to understand that attacking the things Q loved was the first way to get him angry.

And if Q was angry, he would not be able to take any responsibility for his actions.

His years of training seeped into him, clearing his mind as he walked along the corridors where James had been, stepping over the bodies of the guards without a glance. James’ screams were raw, Moran had to be using the crucio curse on him to make him scream like that.

 _Oh you are going to pay,_ Q thought as he came to a shattered window. The bullet holes around the window told him that someone had been shooting at the window mere minutes before.

_James._

Q stepped towards the window, looking down into the courtyard. In the centre stood Moran, wand outstretched over the curled form of James. She was smiling, eyes flicking around the castle looking for Q.

 _“_ Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Moran said, gleefully, as she sent another burst of _crucio_ towards James. He screamed, and now Q could see him it made the gut wrenching pain even worse.

M would tell him that he had to stay undercover, that they had already blown the operation. Yet the sight of James curled up in agony unleashed a monster inside Q he had not felt for a long time.

Stepping up to the window frame, the broken glass cracking underfoot, Q glanced downwards, judging the distance. He smiled when Moran noticed him, her wand jerking back from James in shock. She probably thought he was going to do something stupid like jump.

Which is what he did.

He learnt the spell to slow down the effect of gravity early on in his career, and had tweaked it for situations such as these. His plummet was slowed by the magic he muttered under his breath, giving him plenty of time to position his legs to brace for the impact.

He had to admit, the dirt his impact threw up into the air did add a flair of the dramatic to his entrance, which is what Q wanted. He needed the attention of Moran and her guards, he needed to draw her away from James.

“Ah, yes,” Moran said, wand twirling in her long fingers, “you’re the one sent to stop me. How quaint of the Ministry to send their bedraggled pup to catch me, it’s almost like I wasn’t important enough.”

“I’m sure your ego will survive,” Q snarled, twisting his wand in his hand. His eyes flicked to James, who was slowly uncurling from his foetal position on the ground, catching James’ gaze for just a moment.

Then he whipped his wand into the duelling position and unleashed hell.

x-x-x

_Pain._

It was unlike anything James had ever experienced. This wasn’t some physical infliction of pain, a knife in the leg or a  bullet slicing through flesh. No this was the manipulation of his mind itself, making it feel as much pain as it could handle, generating a thousand mental knives which dug and twisted in his flesh. He screamed because he had to, otherwise the pain was too much for his mind to comprehend.

As suddenly as it was there, it was gone again. James dragged in ragged breaths as his vision begun to clear, looking up at Moran and trying to pull his best _is that all you can give me look?_

Then he noticed Q.

If he had ever underestimated that his Quatermaster could not be dangerous, any doubt was dispelled by the look Q wore as he stood like an angel of death as he stood in the window frame. Even Moran stumbled back in surprise, her mouth muttering a number of curses at the sight.

Then Q jumped out of the window.

James would have been in awe of his partner if his mind was still not feeling the after effects of whatever spell Moran had used on him to cause the pain. Q smashed into the ground, throwing up a mask of dirt that shrouded him. James’ breath caught as the dust settled and Q uncurled from his crouch, eyes locking with Moran.

Moran taunted Q, but James couldn’t hear what she was saying, his mind too fogged by pain. Instead he kept his focus on Q, who glanced to James for a mere second, a small smile appearing on his otherwise expressionless face.

Then, like a viper, Q struck.

James was not sure he had ever seen anything so beautiful, so _deadly,_ as Q launched a flurry of spells that flashed with a whole spectrum of colours. Moran was taken aback, raising her wand to create a hasty barrier to deflect Q’s spell. James was awestruck at how Q moved, unleashing attack after attack on Moran so fast that she barely had time to respond. It was as if he was moving _with_ the magic, turning any attack Moran made into his own, deflecting the spell so it would hit on the guards surrounding him.

All it took was one attack to break past Moran’s shield, hitting her in the throat, and she crumpled like a doll. Q watched her fall with an expressionless face, glancing up at the guards who were still standing with guns trained on him, taunting them to _come and have a go._

With a simple flick of Q’s wand, the remaining guards crumpled to the grounds. The alarm bells still filled the air around them, but there was no one to come and capture James and Q.

James tried to push himself up from the floor, but his arms felt like jelly. He cursed himself for being so weak, when he felt another pair of arms wrap around him, pulling James onto his lap.

“You alright?” Q asked.

“Been better,” James remarked, his voice dry and weak, “remind me never to piss you off.”

“You could never do that,” Q said, eyes glancing back to the still corpse of Moran, “Q branch should have their information by now.”

“So we’re done?” James said, “M’s going to be annoyed.”

“It’s no worse than your usual assignments,” Q smiled, pulling James close to him, “hold on tight.”

“What are you going to do?” James asked.

“Take us home,” Q replied.

With that, they apparated back to England.

 

END.


End file.
